I bought the Jouer ‘Springtime in Paris’ a while back and have been umming and ahh-ing about posting a review.
This was something of an impulse purchase based on hype around the brand, the images and the good reviews it was getting elsewhere.
When it came, as soon as I opened the box I noticed that the shades seemed very different to those shown in the Jouer pictures. The blue in particular is much less saturated than shown in many of the promotional images (although I have to admit it does photograph well it’s actually quite muted). This was not a good sign. Continue reading →

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Spots. Pimples. Zits. Breakouts. Acne. Whatever you call them, we all get them from time to time. We dread the sight of them rearing their ugly heads just when we least need it and can’t wait for them to go away!

Having had acne as a teen learning about skincare was important for me. I’ve noticed lots of people are a little confused about which type of bump is which and the huge amount of beauty jargon really doesn’t help them so I decided to do a bit of jargon busting. Knowing what you’re dealing with in the first place is where to start when putting together a battle plan to deal with problem skin. Continue reading →

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I stumbled across news of this Yemoja palette while watching the ‘Beauty News’ YouTube channel. The same channel that has become famous for destroying make-up but which also does a great round up of new products being announced or released. I had never heard of OPV before but I knew I absolutely had to have a palette dedicated to Yemoja so I paused the video and immediately looked them up. Continue reading →

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No, I haven’t died – I’ve just been super busy! I’ve been offered a place at university for September which is going to mean a lot of changes in my life so my head has been all over the place. Still, studying up to date special effects make-up, proper prosthetics, wig making and a few other creative and useful things for four years is a very exciting prospect. I need to have an assessment of my disability for them to work out my support needs and options to be able to complete the course.

Anyway enough of me prattling on, lets get on with the nails! Yes that’s right, nails. Since I’m no longer at college under City & Guilds rules I can paint my nails with abandon. I’ve grown them back a bit, not too much as I still need to be able to paint, draw and of course do make-up but there’s plenty to paint now especially since I’m luckily blessed with long nail beds (which are now completely back to normal for my long term readers) even if I do have a horrific C curve.

I don’t think I did a bad job of free-handing the French tips considering it’s the first time I’ve done my own in over a year. I always paint them lower than the free edge actually goes to give the illusion of more length.

Just recently I’ve been using a peel off base coat which is a fairly new discovery. I’m quite taken with it as it means I can take off the polish without using remover and you get to be allowed to pick it!

Polishes used:

UNT Cosmetics; ‘Ready For Take Off’ (peel off base coat)

Butter London; ‘Nail Foundation (regular base coat)

Nails Inc; nail kale in ‘Westbourne Park Road’

Essence; gel nail polish in ’44 On Air!’

Revlon; ‘Sequins’ (pretty sure this was limited edition but it just gold glitter of various sizes in a base of clear polish.)

Seche Vite (top coat)

I hope you are all keeping well, I do have a couple of posts planned including details of my visit to the first Manchester Make-Up and Body Art Expo and a couple of product reviews.

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I’m a big fan of the Benefit box powders and have every one so of course I had to complete my collection with the recent releases of ‘Dandelion Twinkle’ and ‘Hoola Light’.
I’ve been meaning to show you ‘Galifornia’ for a little while but I’ve been a bit busy finishing up my course so I rolled that into this review too. The box powders are thankfully one of the things Benefit haven’t messed with the packaging on and I hope they continue leaving it alone. I love the way they all match and I can easily locate whichever one I want in my drawer whereas other brands blush products leave me hunting in among a sea of black compacts of various sizes.
The box powders cost £24.50 in the UK and contain 3g, 5g and 8g respectively.

Cheek Parade

There is also a palette set called ‘Cheek Parade’ available for £49.50 which contains full size versions of both ‘Hoola Lite’ and ‘Galifornia’ as well as three other powders.These palettes are a great option for those buying multiple different Benefit powders, to buy these separately would be over £100! It’s very similar to one I’ve looked at on the blog previously, Cheekathon.

Dandelion Twinkle

Benefit’s first powder highlight since the discontinued ’10’; this is a subtle warm peach-pink toned powder with a sparkle. It’s a very fine powder that imparts a natural looking glow, you’re not going to end up looking like the Tin-Man with this little beauty! It blends well and can also be layered up for more effect. This highlight is perfect for fair skins but may also work very well for other skin tones too as I haven’t noticed any chalkiness at all.
I’ve always been a big fan of the original Dandelion face powder/blush (which I’m hitting pan on again!) so I’m glad to see it getting a little sister to wear with it.

Galifornia

A bright coral pink blush with a gold over-spray sun design. The gold glitter doesn’t seem to carry on past the first usage so whatever you do, don’t buy it just for that! The colour is not orangey and not too rosy, it’s quite a unique coral pink. I found it to be very blendable and easy to work with, I also didn’t notice too much kick up with this one. The scent is of pink grapefruit and vanilla but it’s very subtle and you can only really smell it in the box – it’s not an overload like with the Too Faced perfumed products.
While this looks fine on my pale skin tone I think it will come into it’s own on tanned and medium toned skins.

Hoola Lite

This is a lighter version of the popular Hoola bronzer and is aimed at the paler skinned among us, however, it is quite yellow toned so it might not suit all paler ladies many of whom tend to have a cooler, pinkier complexion. Lucky for me it’s right up my alley! I’ve used it practically every day since I bought it! It does kick up quite a bit of product from the pan but the box packaging means that none of that powder is lost.
Just like it’s big sister it is a matte powder – perfect for those of us who like a more natural look – and blends very well. My main pet hate about the Benefit bronzers is their insistence that you can contour with them. No. Bronzers are not for contouring! Cut it out Benefit and release an actual cool contour powder for heavens sake.

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I'm Kath; a qualified beauty therapist and make-up artist. I'm currently studying media make-up and special effects to add some more strings to my bow. I'm a "make-up geek" as my friends say and am also a bit obsessed with nail polish too! I use this site to share my love of make-up and beauty and skin care education.
I'm also a bendy-EDSer and a wheelchair user.
Portfolio website coming soon!
bendybeauty.com